The latest implied forward rate forecast from Kamakura Corporation shows projected 10 year U.S. Treasury yields up 0.15% to 0.29% from last week while fixed rate mortgage yields are 0.05% to 0.11% higher. Mortgage yields, determined by the Monday through Wednesday weekly survey of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, lag Treasury movements simply because of the 3-day yield calculation used in the Primary Mortgage Market Survey®. The 10 year U.S. Treasury yield is projected to rise from 2.98% at Thursday's close (up 0.23% from last week) to 3.437% (up 0.28% from last week) in one year. The 10 year U.S. Treasury yield in ten years is forecast to reach 4.649%, 15 basis points higher than last week. The 15 year fixed rate mortgage rate is forecast to rise from the effective yield 3.69% on Thursday (up 0.05% from last week) to 4.228% (up 0.09% from last week) in one year and 6.254% in 10 years, up 0.07% from last week. We explain the background for these calculations in the rest of this note, along with some mortgage servicing rights metrics. The forecast allows investors in exchange traded U.S. Treasury funds (NYSEARCA:TLT) (NYSEARCA:TBT), total return bond funds (NYSEARCA:BOND), municipal bonds (NYSE:NUV) and exchange traded mortgage funds (NYSEARCA:REM) to assess likely total returns over the next 120 months. Treasury-related exchange traded funds affected by the forward rates include:

Today's forecast for U.S. Treasury yields is based on the September 5, 2013 constant maturity Treasury yields that were reported by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in its H15 Statistical Release at 4:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time September 6, 2013. The forecast for primary mortgage market yields and the resulting mortgage servicing rights valuations are derived in part from the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation Primary Mortgage Market Survey® made available on the same day.

The U.S. Treasury "forecast" is the implied future coupon bearing U.S. Treasury yields derived using the maximum smoothness forward rate smoothing approach developed by Adams and van Deventer (Journal of Fixed Income, 1994) and corrected in van Deventer and Imai, Financial Risk Analytics (1996). The primary mortgage yield forecast applies the maximum smoothness approach to primary mortgage market credit spreads, which embed the risk neutral probabilities of mortgage default and prepayment risk. References explaining this approach are given below.

Both forecasts, plus the mortgage servicing rights parameters, are available via Kamakura Risk Information Services: Treasury Yield Service, Mortgage Yield Service, and MSR Valuation Service. For information, please contact Kamakura Corporation at info@kamakuraco.com. Similar forecasts for the marginal cost of bank funding and the Libor-swap curve are also available on request.

U.S. Treasury Yield Forecast

This week's projections for the 1 month Treasury bill rate (investment basis) continue to rise past 2014 compared to prior weeks. The projected 1 month rate of 4.497% in August 2023 is up 21 basis points from last week. The 10 year U.S. Treasury yield is projected to rise steadily to reach 4.649% on August 31, 2023, 15 basis points higher than projected last week.

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Mortgage Valuation Yield Curve and Mortgage Yield Forecast

The zero coupon yield curve appropriate for valuing mortgages in the primary mortgage market is derived from new issue effective yields reported by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation in its Primary Mortgage Market Survey®. The maximum smoothness credit spread is produced so that this spread, in combination with the U.S. Treasury curve derived above, correctly values new 15 year and 30 year fixed rate mortgages at their initial principal value less the value of points. The next graph compares the implied 15 year fixed rate mortgage yield with the implied 15 year U.S. Treasury fixed rate amortizing yield over the next ten years.

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The effective yield on 15 year fixed rate mortgages is projected to rise from 3.694% today to 6.254% in 10 years, up 7 basis points compared to last week. The 15 year fixed rate mortgage spread over 15 year amortizing Treasury yields is forecasted to widen from its current level of 0.892% to 1.640% in 10 years, down 8 basis points from last week.

Implied Valuation of Mortgage Servicing Rights

Using the insights of Kamakura Managing Director of Research Prof. Robert Jarrow noted below, we have derived the risk-neutral values of mortgage cash flows which are based on market implied default risk and prepayment risk. We use these zero coupon bond prices to value mortgage-related cash flows relevant to mortgage servicing rights. These zero coupon bond prices, when multiplied by current primary mortgage market terms, value new mortgages at their principal value less the value of points:

We apply the same mortgage valuation yield curve zero coupon bond prices to various levels of net servicing fees to get their risk-neutral present value in today's market:

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If we use the market convention that the net cost to service is a constant dollar amount, the risk-neutral present value of the net cost to service can be derived using the same zero coupon bond prices from the mortgage valuation yield curve.

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Kamakura Corporation works with clients on a consulting basis to do this valuation on a risk-neutral inflation adjusted basis as well as the constant nominal dollar cost basis.

Next, we value float per $100 of taxes and insurance on the underlying home. We assume that float is invested at the matched maturity U.S. Treasury forward rate for the matching float period below. The risk-neutral present value of the interest earned is calculated using the mortgage valuation yield curve, since an event of default or prepayment on the underlying mortgage ends this source of value. Value for a constant $100 amount is given here for "float periods" ranging from 1/4 of a month to a full month:

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Again, the same analysis can be done on an inflation adjusted basis with insurance and taxes tied to the value of the home.

The value of float on the payment of interest and principal for various lengths of the "float period" is given in this table:

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Another important component of mortgage servicing rights valuation is the net impact of cash flows to the servicer from the events of default and prepayment. We can analyze this by asking this question: what would be the value of the mortgage if there were no events of default or prepayment? The answer is obtained by applying U.S Treasury zero coupon bond rates to the scheduled mortgage cash flows. This table shows the net reduction in certain monthly cash flow that would be necessary for the value of the mortgage to adjust downward from this "no default/no prepayment value" to its current market value, discounted by the U.S. Treasury zero coupon bond prices. This adjusted basis converts the random probability of losses from prepayment and default to a known, certain cost of prepayment and default in the form of this "implied net constant monthly cash flow reduction." The division of this negative cash flow impact between the servicer and other parties depends on the term of the servicing contract:

The smoothing process for the maximum smoothness credit spread, derived from coupon-bearing bond prices, is given in Chapter 17 of van Deventer, Imai and Mesler (2013).

The problems with conventional approaches to mortgage servicing rights valuation and Kamakura's approach to mortgage valuation yield curve derivation are also outlined here, along with the reasons for smoothing forward credit spreads instead of the absolute level of forward rates for the marginal bank funding cost curve.

The academic paper outlining the Kamakura approach to mortgage yield curve derivation was published in The Journal of Fixed Income:

Today's forecast for the mortgage valuation yield curve is based on the following data from the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation Primary Mortgage Market Survey®:

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Only fixed rate mortgage data is used in this analysis for reasons explained in the Kamakura mortgage valuation blog.

Applying the maximum smoothness forward rate smoothing approach to the forward credit spreads between the mortgage valuation yield curve and the U.S. Treasury curve results in the following zero coupon bond yields:

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The forward rates for the mortgage valuation yield curve and U.S. Treasury curve are shown here:

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Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.